pelican / these arms are snakes - Split

**White Vinyl** This split 10" from heavyweights Pelican and These Arms Are Snakes actually features quite a bit of mutual overlap between the two bands, with parties from each camp guesting on one another's songs. First up, Pelican's 'Pink Mammoth' is just immense - it's sludge metal on a good day, all vast and teetering on the euphoric. For much of its duration the song seems to be poised on a single chord, continually finding new ways of blasting at your ears while trebly lead guitar parts swill around at the bottom of the mix. Flip over and These Arms Are Snakes dish up the more conventional sounding 'Gold Diggers', which broods nebulously across the B-side, complete with vocals and a veritable array of different guitar parts - some of which have the audacity to 'jangle' while somewhere in there you can probably hear an acoustic six-string, further removing 'metal' from its comfort zone.